Harrowing
by Entwinedlove
Summary: Complete. Part II of Concentric Trilogy. / Hermione and her new friends watch the Battle of Hogwarts. Something — the Event? — Happens. This story is a sequel to the one-shot "The First Circle" and will be followed by a multi-chapter novella titled "Ascension."
1. To Watch

This story is a sequel to the one-shot "The First Circle" and will be followed by a multi-chapter novella titled "Ascension."

* * *

Things felt different in Limbo. There was still day and night, the body still became tired and hungry, hair and nails still grew, but there was no sense of temperature. Touching others or taking a shower were awkward things without it. Lily could cook a meal and it would be neither hot nor cold. The only way to know if the food was cooked was by the texture. There didn't seem to be sickness either, so when Hermione didn't cook chicken through completely, the only harm was that Sirius and James teased her about it.

If Hermione had been counting days, she would have known that about two months had already gone by. In Limbo, days blended into weeks and into hours, and there was never boredom. Only a stronger urge to watch.

As the main, large pool closest to the Potter's house was always set to watching Harry, that's what they did. They watched in shifts. Sometimes Sirius's Aunt Lycoris and Uncle Regulus, sometimes James's parents Dorea and Charlus. Lily watched the most. In the two months since she'd woken up here, Hermione was making a name for herself as Lily's twin in that regard. She spent long hours, more than any other shift, just staring into the still water. Watching.

Hermione was feeling restless. She'd finally been sent to bed by Lycoris a few hours ago, but she couldn't sleep. So she got up, dressed, and made her way back to the pool. It was dark and quiet tonight. No one was at the other pools. There were only two standing at Harry's. Lycoris was on one side and on the other was the elder Regulus, both watching intently.

Hermione came to stop next to Lycoris. It took a moment for the image to focus, but as it did, she recognised the stone walls and the corridors. "He's at Hogwarts," she whispered. She couldn't see anyone in the hall, so he must have been under his invisibility cloak.

"Oh, good, one of you are here. Go fetch Lily, Hermione. I think it's time." As Lycoris spoke the image changed to a small, spiralling staircase. "That's Ravenclaw Tower," she murmured. She looked up at Hermione who was still trying to figure out what Harry was doing at Hogwarts. "Go, child!"

Hermione looked up at Lycoris and saw how anxious she was. She turned and ran back to the row of houses. She had learned that there wasn't a difference among them. Every house she saw could be the house she wanted. All she had to do was picture it clearly in her mind and open any door. It would always be the house she wanted. Once inside, Hermione shouted into the silent house. "Lily! Lily, Lycoris says it's time!'

She came down the stairs already dressed, James, sans moustache, following. Sirius, Dorea, and Charlus each came out of their rooms at the sound of her voice. Lily didn't wait for explanations, just rushed right past Hermione. Hermione didn't wait for any of the others, either, and followed Lily back towards the pool.

Harry was on the floor in a circular room that Hermione had never seen before; blue and bronze fabric covered the walls. Standing over Harry was Alecto Carrow. Then the witch fell over. Harry said something, stood, and then disappeared. Whoever was with him must have stunned the witch.

"Who's with him, Lycoris?" Lily asked, panting not from the run but from holding her breath.

"Luna Lovegood."

Students gathered around the body of the woman. Whispering to themselves. They all froze in fear and looked towards the door. After a long pause, they all scrambled back up the stairs to their dorms and the door burst open. Amycus Carrow stormed in with his wand drawn.

Professor McGonagall, standing tall and stiff, followed behind him. They looked over Alecto and bickered for a moment, then McGonagall looked around the room as if searching for someone. Hermione felt her eyes prickle. McGonagall had figured out Harry was there. They were bickering again and Carrow moved his face close to hers, snarling and shouting. Then he spat in her face.

Hermione heard Sirius start swearing that if he could only get his hands on Carrow and Lily hushing him.

"Look," Lily said, pointing at the pool. "Watch," she commanded. They did; they watched as Harry slipped out from under the cloak and shouted. Carrow flew backwards, his body arching up and thrashing, twisting in pain before he smashed into a glass-fronted bookcase and fell to the ground.

Hermione's heart felt like it was in her throat as she watched the scene. Watched McGonagall, startled, shocked, and proud as she scolded Harry.

"That was a powerful Cruciatus," a young man's voice said from beside Hermione. She looked up at Regulus, the younger.

"That's what that was? I'd never… I'd never seen it cast on someone else."

He looked at her with pain in his eyes, like he knew how she felt, before he reached out and ran his fingertips along her arm. He nodded back towards the pool and they both turned to watch again. McGonagall was alone in the corridor, which meant Harry and Luna were under the cloak. Professor Snape slipped out of the darkness into their path. Short, terse conversation followed and then they duelled. Or rather, McGonagall attacked Snape. Snape was fast and efficient in his spell casting and even though Hermione didn't like him, his technique impressed her. Then more professors were running up the hall and they all were casting spells at Snape. His eyes widened, only the slightest hint of fear on his face, before he turned and, without hesitation, leapt through a window.

Hermione could imagine the sound of the glass as he went through it. Lily's whispered, "Sev," was the only sound instead.

The scene shifted enough to see what Harry was seeing as he looked out the window. Severus Snape was flying; his black cloak flapping behind him like great wings. Regulus's chuckle startled Hermione enough to look up at him. "Sev is not a big fan of flying."

"Really?"

"Oh, he'll do it. By broom, I mean. He was even decent at it. Just did not like doing it." He gestured towards the pool. "I've never seen him fly unassisted like that though."

"Why do you call him that?"

"Sev?" he asked. "Because he was my friend and friends sometimes shorten each others' names."

"But Lily called him that, too," she said quietly, unsure. Lily was focused on the scene in the pool and Hermione assumed she was reading lips.

"Sev and Lily were friends before they went to Hogwarts. I think she still has a soft spot for him," Regulus answered.

Hermione's eyebrows scrunched together. "But he killed Dumbledore!"

"And he's done plenty of other despicable things, but he's always watched over Harry."

Hermione felt confusion over that. Snape had always been horrible to Harry. She pushed it to the back of her mind as she turned to see Lily had stopped watching the pool. She was looking around the space with that same intensity she'd had only moments ago. Hospital beds started creating themselves in two neat rows near the pools. More people were coming out of their houses, moving to their usual pools. Finally, when there were ten beds, with lamps to illuminate the space, she stopped. The number of people coming out of their houses was overwhelming now. She turned and Sirius reached out to steady her as she stood on the edge of the pool. She looked out over the amassing crowd.

"There is about to be a battle at Hogwarts," Lily said and her voice echoed out over the crowd like she had used a Sonorous charm. She swallowed and Hermione could see tears starting to form in her eyes. "There will be death. Please, consider taking charge of someone's orientation; they will be confused upon waking. Remember how you were confused once." She stepped down and turned back to the pool.

Harry was in a corridor talking to himself it seemed. Someone farther around the pool started a whisper and Hermione could hear the susurrations as it made its way towards her. "He's speaking with a ghost: The Grey Lady," the whispers said.

Things happened quickly after that. Hermione saw Hagrid and Neville and an old man that looked like Dumbledore and Ron. Harry and Ron were headed up to the Room of Requirement when the first body materialised on the bed. Hermione turned at the disturbance to see Remus Lupin, looking tired and battle-worn but in clean clothes, on the first bed. James and Sirius were the first to act, moving towards his bed to ease with the disorientation.

There was a bright red-orange glow from the pool and Hermione watched as fire, burning hot and fast and consuming everything in its path chased after Harry, Ron, and surprisingly Malfoy and Goyle. Vincent Crabbe was the next body to appear, skin still emitting wafts of smoke but otherwise whole. An elderly man and woman rushed from the crowd to gather at his bedside. Hermione assumed they might be his grandparents.

A third figure materialised just as quickly, with bright red hair sticking up at all ends. Hermione's eyes burned as she looked back into the pool to see Ron and Percy kneeling beside a downed body. "Fred," she murmured as she looked back. Regulus and Cepheus had moved towards the boy as soon as he showed up. Then little Colin Creevy was there and Pandora had gone to him.

The images in the pool were coming at lightning speed, Harry nowhere in sight and Ron following behind.

The next body to materialise was Tonks, and instead of waking up gradually like the others, she woke up screaming. "Teddy!" She sat straight up, looking around in a panic, "No, no, no, no, no..." Despite the crazy scene that was blazing along in the pools, Lily turned and went straight for her. She hugged Tonks and rocked her back and forth to try and soothe her.

Lavender Brown was waking up in the next bed and Professor Vector in the next.

Hermione couldn't keep track as three more people she didn't recognise showed up immediately after that. She worried that they needed more beds, but each of the previous occupants was helped up and taken off to talk away from the noise. Hermione blinked. The noise? She looked around. The entire plaza was filled with people. Although most were whispering there were shouts and wails as loved ones were injured and died.

Hermione turned back to the pool, desperate to see what was going on. She watched Harry and Ron as they watched Voldemort and Snape. She could almost hear Snape's scream as Voldemort commanded Nagini to kill him. She jerked back as the snake attacked, horrified by the amount of blood gushing from his neck. She leaned forward, intrigued by the bluish mist that poured from his mouth, his ears, and his eyes. She watched as Ron dug into his pockets, pulled out an empty sweets box that had been in his pocket for months and shoved it at Harry, who used it to scoop up the blue, floating mist. Then Snape's hand fell to the wooden floor and Hermione was sure she heard it thud.

When she turned to look at the beds, Snape was already there, dressed in his normal black cloak. He was staring at the sky which was still starry and dark. No one had moved to help him. No one. Not a single person in the whole plaza had the courage or the will to go help him. Hermione nodded to herself and took a deep breath as she walked towards his cot. Another body appeared on the first bed that Remus had vacated and the cycle started again.


	2. To Receive

"So this is where you guys have been hiding?" Remus asked, looking around and up, trying to orientate himself with the night sky above.

James grinned and Sirius laughed, "Yeah, something like that."

"What is this place?" Remus asked, still staring at the sky. He looked back down at his friends in frustration. "I can't recognise any of the stars. Nothing's familiar."

"We're familiar," James said, reaching out to rest his hand on Remus's shoulder.

"Yeah, you keep looking right past me and I'm the brightest star here. You don't need the ones up there to find your way, mate," Sirius teased.

"This is Limbo," James continued. "You can watch over your loved ones from here."

"Dora and Teddy? Harry?" Remus asked, scuffing his foot along the cobbled street.

In the noise they could hear from the crowd, a woman screamed 'Teddy!' and Remus dropped his head as his face crumbled upon recognising the voice. "No, no… She wasn't supposed to be there!" He turned and looked back through the throng. "I can't even see a way to get to her!"

James's hand tightened on his shoulder. "Someone will help her. Knowing my wife, Lily's probably already pulled her into her arms. She has a thing about helping the mothers of orphans."

Remus turned away from them and inhaled a ragged breath.

"Shit, James, you're about as bad as me when it comes to saying the wrong thing," Sirius said, then he reached out and touched Remus's arm. "Come on, mate. You picked a great godfather, all right? One ten times better than me. Harry will take care of Teddy and he's still got his grandmother. When Tonks has calmed down—when all this mess has calmed down—we'll get you set up in your own little house out here and you can both watch over your son. All right?"

Remus looked up at him, his face wet with shed tears, but he nodded at Sirius.

Dropping his arm, Sirius nodded back and grinned, "So, do you know which of the sons of bitches got you?"

 *** . * . ***

"I know it hurts. I know, I know… It feels like your heart's been ripped from your chest; just breathe, Tonks," Lily comforted.

"What's going on? What's-Where am I?" Tonks asked once she'd relaxed into the embrace Lily offered her.

"Let's walk, and I'll explain. There's a field of flowers past the houses, we can go there. It's comforting."

"Who are you?" Tonks asked as she stumbled on the kerb of the street into an endless, moonlit field of white flowers.

"I'm Lily Potter and you're in Limbo," she answered. She held tight to Tonks's hand as they moved through the field. The sound of the crowd muffled the farther out they got.

"Limbo? Wasn't that a children's game with a bar and a silly song?"

Lily smiled. "This one's a bit different. You can watch over Teddy from here. When this mess is all over, I'll show you how to find a pool and change the scene. I've always got one showing Harry."

"At least Teddy still has his father…" Tonks muttered to herself.

Lily stopped and used the hand she held to turn Tonks towards her. "Tonks, I…"

Tonks's eyes widened as she recognised the look of empathy on Lily's face. "No!" She wailed and collapsed to her knees. "He was supposed to be strong! He was supposed to live…"

Lily followed Tonks down and wrapped her arms around her. Instead of offering more platitudes or empathy, she just held her. Understanding the pain and loss and irrational betrayal she felt.

 *** . * . ***

Fred bounced on the balls of his feet as he looked around. Cepheus and Regulus had brought him out on the circular street with all the never-ending houses. "What is this place? It's a little bizarre, isn't it? What happened?" He patted his pockets before tacking on, "You blokes haven't seen my wand, have you?"

Regulus shared a grin with Cepheus before answering the redhead's questions. "Well… You died and we're in Limbo."

Fred stopped and turned on his heel to look at Regulus, the grin on his face falling away. "I died? No… I mean, I was just talking to…" he looked around again, "Percy."

"Took a huge rock to the noggin, mate," Cepheus responded, using Fred's inflexions with ease.

Fred half grinned again and turned back to continue walking. "Bit the dust, then, huh?"

Regulus chuckled, "Yeah."

"So… No wands?"

"No, but with enough focus, you can make things happen."

"Intent, yeah, okay. What does one do in Limbo?" He turned and walked backwards, still leading the group but now facing the other two.

"Watch over loved ones, mostly. Talk with other dead people," Regulus answered.

"Sleep, eat, shit," Cepheus added, "Same ol' stuff really."

"So I can keep an eye on Georgie from up here?" Fred asked, a mischievous glint in his eye.

"Can't interact like a ghost, though. All you can do is watch."

"Damn," Fred joked.

* . * . *

Colin woke up crying. There was pain, but there was a light, airy voice too. "You're okay, Colin," Pandora said. "The pain will fade soon."

He gasped as the pain did ease and he looked up at her then around at the crowd.

"Come on, let's get you somewhere a bit quieter." She held out her hand and clasped his. He followed, ready to get back to the battle.

Once they were in an alley between houses Pandora wrapped an arm around his shoulders. "Whenever you're ready," she said as she guided him out onto the large, circular street.

"Ready? Ready for what? Who are you?"

"My name is Pandora. I think you know my daughter, Luna Lovegood."

"But Luna's mum is…" he paused to look down at himself, pulling away from her. He jerked several steps away back and stared at her like she was poisonous. "No, I can't be... I'm just sleeping. Passed out, right? Got a bump on the head and I'll be all right?"

"No, Colin. You're dead."

"I don't… I don't want to believe you. How do you know my name? Where are we?"

"We are in Limbo. Anytime someone comes here, everyone nearby learns their name. I think it's a nice touch for someone who doesn't have anyone waiting for them."

"But... My grandparents are... you know. Why wouldn't they be waiting on me?"

Pandora gave him a sad smile before she lied. "Sometimes loved ones decide they want to move on. Perhaps they thought you were being taken well care of by your parents and they were ready to rest." She closed her eyes and when she opened them two liquorice wands appeared in her hands. She offered one to him. "Sweet?"

 *** . * . *  
**

Hermione appeared close to Severus's shoulder where he still lay on the cot. He turned his head at the movement and furrowed his brow. "Miss Granger?"

"Hermione is fine. You're not my professor here." She waited, seeming to realise that he would move in his own time. He sat up and his hand reached up to touch his throat.

"I'd heard rumours, Miss Granger, that you were dead. It's good to see that they were false."

"Well…" she started to say, but there was a wail from a nearby bed and new occupant, so she gestured towards the houses. "Let's take a walk."

He stood and followed behind her, through the crowd past the many pools across a large curving street and beyond into a vast field of asphodel. When he stopped on the edge and looked out at the tall stalks of the flowers, he nodded. "We are dead, then?"

"Yes."

"Is Lily here?" He looked down at Hermione, piercing her with his dark eyes.

"Yes, but—"

He lowered his head and put his hands behind his back, even as they continued to stroll through the flowers. "She didn't want to speak to me before. I don't know why I thought I'd get to speak with her now."

Hermione frowned. "That's not it. A lot of people have died in the battle down there and she's helping explain things to Tonks."

He squinted at her. "Tonks?"

She nodded.

"Why…" his chest moved as he sighed. "First things first. Where are we?"

"Limbo."

"Limbo? Place between heaven and hell, or…" he trailed off and paused in his stroll, looking around. "Asphodel Meadows. We're in _Dante's Inferno_."

Hermione half agreed. "Er, we aren't quite sure. That was one piece of literature I never got around to reading. All I know is _Dante's Inferno_ has, what? Seven circles of hell or something?"

"Nine. Limbo is the first." He looked back at the cobbled, circular street with its never-ending houses. "In the design of concentric circles."

"Oh."

"What happens in here?" He asked. "I don't see a castle with seven gates and I'm definitely not a virtuous pagan."

"Wow, umm, I take it you have read _Dante's Inferno_ , then?"

" _Inferno, Purgatorio, Paradiso_ , all in the original Italian." He reached down and plucked a petal from the asphodel at his knees.

"Well, we watch over people from here. Inside the circle of houses, there's a big open area with pools that shows scenes from… Our world. We were watching over Harry."

He nodded. "Who all has died in the battle so far?"

"Remus, Tonks, Colin Creevy, Vincent Crabbe, Fred Weasley…"

His face scrunched like he couldn't control the emotion he felt at hearing their names. He looked over at her. "Did you draw the short straw?"

"Hmm?"

"I assume there was probably a bet going if Potter and Black are here. How horrible my end and who would have to deal with me."

"Not that I know of and no, no short straw. Just more courage than the rest."

He snorted and turned from her, "Courage." He opened his mouth like he was going to say something else but a loud shout pierced the heavy night air.

"Harry Potter is dead!"

A woman's scream immediately followed, and a blur of white and red ran past them so fast she could have been flying. "No!" she screamed again.

"Lily!" Severus and Hermione both chased after her and watched as the crowd parted to let her through. Severus saw James Potter and almost stopped, but Hermione grabbed his hand. "We have to see! We have to watch!"


	3. To Take

The plaza had gone quiet by the time Hermione and Severus had reached the pool. All around them, people peered over the edge of the pool into the calm water to watch. In the scene before them Hagrid carried Harry's body, moving with the conquering army as they marched up to the front doors of Hogwarts. The focus of the scene wasn't on Harry's body but on the faces of everyone coming out of the Entrance Hall to see the Death Eaters.

McGonagall's mouth opened and she stumbled. Her scream of despair was obvious despite not actually hearing it. There were others who must have screamed too. Hermione watched as Ron grabbed Ginny and pulled her back, keeping her from running forward and doing something that might get her killed.

Voldemort looked like he was starting to monologue. "He's saying Harry was trying to save himself..." Lily murmured, but in the stillness, it sounded like a Sonorous charm. "He's calling my son a coward," she continued, her voice husky and thick like she was going to start crying. James put his arm around her waist.

Neville charged out of the crowd and collapsed, disarmed in the process. Bellatrix laughed and Hermione could hear that sound in her head. Her skin broke out in goosebumps. A hand settled on her back but she didn't turn to see who it was.

Voldemort and Neville exchanged words, and then a window broke high up one of the towers and something flew into Voldemort's hands. "There will be no more Sorting at Hogwarts, he says," Lily quoted. "No more houses. Only Slytherin." Voldemort cast a spell at Neville that kept him motionless and pulled the Hat down on his head and over his eyes. Then the sick bastard lit the hat on fire.

Hermione released a whining sound at the action and it seemed to echo out over the crowded plaza.

Then giants and centaurs swarmed over the hill past the walls of the school headed straight for the Death Eaters. Yet Hermione's eyes had strayed back to Harry's body, laid on the ground at Hagrid's feet. For a single moment, Hermione swore she must have gone mad because she thought she saw him move. Then he disappeared. She started shouting. "Harry! Harry's alive! He's got his invisibility cloak! He's alive!" She jumped up and down so close to the edge of the pool she almost fell in but someone grabbed her from behind and held her against their hard chest.

There were shouts from someone on the other side of the pool that Neville had just killed the snake Nagini. Some of the gathered crowd was celebrating the fact that Harry was still alive. Many were still watching as the battle below started up again. It wasn't until Hagrid looked up and shouted-and even Hermione could figure out the words-"Harry, Where's Harry?" that chaos erupted on the lawn at the doors of the school.

The giants attacked both Death Eaters and defenders alike. The scene shifted as Death Eaters and defenders took cover from them and made their way into the castle. Three centaurs followed the Death Eaters and even a group of house elves joined the melee, with little Kreacher out front wearing his locket.

"Kreacher," she heard a voice muttered from behind her and a wet sounding chuckle.

The stone floor of the Great Hall started turning red and wet with blood from stab wounds and slices, arrows and hexes. And though Death Eaters fell, in unconsciousness and death, the beds that Lily had created never added another occupant. Voldemort duelled three Order members by himself and so did Bellatrix. The sickly green colour of an unforgivable erupted from Bellatrix's wand and Ginny sidestepped just in time to have the spell dissolve on her shirt sleeve. Hermione's breath hitched in fear for her friend.

Mrs Weasley saw what happened and engaged Bellatrix in a duel alone. Hermione could almost feel the heat rising up from the ground they fought on and smell the burnt ozone from spell fire. Then Bellatrix laughed and Mrs Weasley's last spell went right below the crazy woman's arm and hit her in the chest. Her body toppled and Voldemort's scream of fury was so great they heard it in Limbo. The crowd in the plaza riled at the shocking sound. Hermione saw Gideon and Fabian Prewett start squeezing through the crowd. She supposed they were expecting Mrs Weasley to show up soon.

But she didn't. A shield charm, normally invisible, shimmered as it manifested down the middle of the hall, protecting Mrs Weasley from whatever Voldemort had sent her way. Then Harry was there; pulling his cloak off at last and staring so fiercely at Voldemort that even Severus beside Hermione sucked in a shocked breath.

He was dirty and caked with blood, but he was standing on his own two feet ready to destroy Voldemort once and for all. Everyone else in the Hall seemed to fall back, even as Harry and Voldemort circled one another. They spoke: sneering, shouting, and gloating. Taunting one another. Hermione could only catch a few words here and there by staring at their mouths. She recognised the name Dumbledore, and only spared a single thought that she hadn't met him during her time in Limbo. Then her eyes and thoughts were again focused on the circling figures below. She caught the words "Snape's Patronus" and "loved" but she wasn't sure what else was being said.

At one point Lily looked up at Severus and locked eyes with him, but it only lasted for the shortest of moments before she was again staring at the pool below her. Hermione caught Harry's last words, "master of the Elder Wand," as the sun slipped above the horizon and spilt its rays over the battlements and into the broken windows onto the people inside the Hall. Both wizards cast a spell together.

The green light of the Killing Curse blinked out of existence as the wand in Voldemort's hand went soaring through the air. The sound of the colliding spells reached out past the boundaries of death and echoed in the skies of Limbo. Voldemort fell backwards and landed heavily. The defenders of Hogwarts and the crowds of Limbo all started shouting at once. Celebratory shouts and laughter rang out into the dawn that had sneaked its way into Limbo as well.

Hermione turned in the arms of the man that had been squeezing her and, reaching up on her tiptoes, slanted her mouth over his. It was Sirius and he kissed her back. The zing of electric energy and excitement of the moment made her laugh which broke the kiss. Sirius grinned at her and stepped back and then pushed into the crowd shouting for James.

She turned back around to see Severus looking at her with a raised eyebrow and she ducked her head, smiling sheepishly. There was a thunderclap that startled her and she looked back to the pool. There was no longer an image reflecting on its surface. The water was rippling outward from the middle in circles as if a single droplet had disturbed it. The earth beneath her feet trembled and she reached out her arms to steady herself as Severus grabbed her arm to do the same. When she looked up at him she could read the same emotion she felt, confusion.

Another tremor under Hermione's feet had her stumbling closer to Severus. He wrapped his arm around her in reflex as they looked around at the crowd. Some of the crowd had stumbled and fallen and others were reaching out to steady themselves. A loud rumbling noise vibrated up from the ground. At the ominous sound, the crowd started shouting and panicking.

"What's going on?" she shouted over the noise.

"Earthquake?" Severus answered.

"I didn't think Limbo was a physical place on Earth!" she screamed.

The crowd seemed to rush outwards, away from the pools to the street and the Asphodel Meadows beyond it. Those closest to the pools, like her and Severus, were pushed back and kept trapped.

The tremors grew until it was difficult to stand and she fell against Severus. She watched as Lily and James, arms wrapped around each other, tumbled backwards into the pool. The water wasn't shallow like she'd thought and they started sinking down into it.

Water crested in a wave across the pool. Then the earth rocked back causing a splash that blocked out any view Hermione had of Lily and James. The spray of water was icy and it stung as it pelted her skin. The feel of temperature was such a shock that she gasped and ended up with a mouth full of water.

Hermione watched as Regulus and Sirius, holding one another's arms, were pushed into the pool by the chaotic crowd. Cepheus and Pandora, nearby, also fell into the pool and disappeared into the mist and spray and churning waves. Again the earth rocked and she and Severus rolled against the low lip of the pool and into the violent water themselves.

"Don't let go!" Severus shouted in her ear as he pinned her body to his. The crashing waves threw them against the inside of the pool and tumbled them under the water. Hermione couldn't see anything because she kept closing her eyes against the onslaught of cold water. She couldn't hear anything over the roaring waves and screaming crowd. Between the angry, icy water and the panic she was feeling, she didn't think she was capable of breathing.

She had no way to know if the ground had stopped shaking because the water in the deep pool they were in continued to move and thrash them against the sides. She felt agonizing pain as they spun and flipped, hitting both each other and the stone walls. The backs of her hands, still clenching Severus's clothes as tightly as possible, felt raw from scraping the stones. She was positive one of her elbows had broken on impact as well.

If she had any breath in her body she would have screamed. In fact, she might have tried, but all at once there was nothing as she lost consciousness.


	4. To Struggle

Sirius woke up feeling strangely empty and cold. There was no noise. Not even the peaceful quiet of nature. Only the absence of sound.

The world around him was layered in white fog so thick he couldn't see more than a foot in front of him. He stood and stumbled, achy in his limbs as though he'd lain in bed too long. He spoke and his ears popped but he still couldn't hear anything. He wondered if he'd gone deaf.

He took a step and felt dizzy; he took another and watched as the ground came rushing up to meet his face. He turned his head so he didn't break his nose, but the fall knocked the breath from his chest. He lay there only a moment feeling stunned before he rolled over again. He looked down to see why his arms hadn't responded to his instinctive need to cover his face. Each one was bound in satin ribbon. One hand was bound in gold and the other in silver. They felt numb. He stood again and held his arms out like he was trying to walk a tightrope. He stayed upright.

He took seven more steps forward. There, only a single step further, was an enormous golden gate. The fog around the gate cleared enough to see that on either side was a wall of grey stone. It was so high he couldn't see the top and so wide he couldn't determine the ends.

Through the golden gate was a second gate, this one in silver, connecting to another never-ending wall. The gates were so close together that if he stuck his arm through the first he would be able to brush his fingertips on the second. He didn't. His hands were still bound and numb and as the fog cleared a little more he could see a short, round figure crouching between the gates. He looked at it without comprehending what he was seeing.

His ears popped and sound exploded in his brain like a bomb going off. He wobbled on his feet and shook his head to try and clear the disorientation. When things levelled off, he could finally identify the noise he was hearing. The figure between the gates was whimpering. There was something so familiar to the sound that Sirius jerked back from it.

"Sirius... I'm sorry. I'm so, so, sorry." The figure said, moving. Looking up at Sirius from between the gates was a man. There were features that seemed to resemble the rat of his Animagus form but he was still human.

"Wormtail," Sirius growled. It was instinct to react with anger. Twelve years in Azkaban, his best friend dead. All his reasons to hate Peter Pettigrew came crashing into his brain like a raging storm.

"I'm sorry!" Peter wailed again, reaching up to try and touch Sirius's hands through the golden gate.

Sirius stumbled back in disgust and fell on his backside. That's when he noticed that his hands weren't numb or bound any longer. Instead, each had a small key tied to his wrist with the same satin ribbon. He brought the silver key on his hand close to his face. Carved into the delicate metal was the word 'remorse.' On the other key, golden and shimmering in the dim light, was the word 'reconciliation.'

Sirius looked back at Peter, still crying and reaching through the gate trying to touch him. "I'm so sorry, Sirius. I was a coward. I was scared."

The familiar anger and hatred welled up in Sirius's soul. Then there was sharp pain as something seemed to dig into his forehead. He reached up trying to find the source of the pain.

Line, curve.

Line, curve.

Line, curve.

The letter "P" was carved into his flesh three times. He looked at his hands and saw blood on them. As he stared at them in confusion the fog encroached over the gates again and soon he couldn't see anything at all.

 *** . * . ***

James woke with a gasp, instantly awake. Out of habit, he reached out for his glasses. He didn't reach out for Lily. It had been years since they'd woken up together. It wasn't until he felt grass under his fingers that he realised something was different. The light was dim and things were blurry, but if he squinted he could make out what looked like lollipops moving. Human-sized lollipops. Knowing that must be wrong, he stood and started walking towards the closest one.

He didn't get that far. Instead, Severus Snape seemed to materialise in front of him. Not the almost forty-year-old man he'd last seen in the pool and in Limbo. No, this was a young teen. Just as greasy and with spots. He moved closer and grabbed James by the arm, dragging him several feet towards a large pile of boulders.

"Snape!"

The young man didn't speak but continued to glare as he manhandled James. He pushed James shoulders down with so much force James almost face-planted into the ground. When he tried to stand back up he was shoved down again. James jerked out from Snape's hold and ran.

He ran towards the odd lollipops, with long strides of his legs using muscles he hadn't used in ages. He kept going until he couldn't any longer and bent to catch his breath. Instantly, as if he hadn't run away, Snape grabbed him again. A heavy weight landed on his bent back and his knees buckled. With his knees on the ground, James didn't have the leverage to get up and run from Snape again. He tried to struggle but Snape started wrapping a scratchy rope around his chest, tying that heavy weight to him. The weight was hard and painful and to try and counter the weight he bent further and put his hands on the ground.

"Snape, what are you doing? Stop!" James shouted.

Snape did not speak. Instead, he grabbed James's arms again and yanked him up to his feet and pushed him, like he was expected to walk with this crippling heavy weight on his back.

"No. Get this thing off me!"

"Walk," a voice commanded. It was not Snape.

James didn't understand nor did he know why he followed the command. He just did. The first step wasn't so bad. The second, as he shifted the new weight from one leg to the other, was when the pain started. Each subsequent step made it worse. The muscles in his legs shook and twitched under the heavy load and his spine felt like it was breaking. Still, he continued to walk.

His slow, heavy steps brought him to the base of a sculpture. It was a woman kneeling in prayer with an angel over her. Below the sculpture was an inscription and although it was at first written in a different language, as James stood in front of it, the script in the stone changed into English. "Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word."

James could recognise that the imagery was religious, but he didn't understand what it meant. Instead, all of his focus was on the pain in his body.

"Walk," the voice commanded again.

He did.

 *** . * . ***

Regulus was shivering when he woke up and his lungs felt full of water. He coughed, expecting water to come up, but none did. He was freezing. It was such a strange sensation after almost twenty years of Limbo that he knew immediately that something was different. He looked around and saw hundreds of people in plain, grey cloaks with their hoods pulled down. There seemed to be nothing beyond the people and they all seemed to walk aimlessly. There was a voice on the wind, whispering words in thousands of languages all at once, yet it was difficult to hear.

He stood and dusted himself off, making sure none of his clothing was torn. He decided he'd need to speak with one of the cloaked people to learn where he was and headed in the direction of the closest one. As he got closer he noticed all of their cloaks were threadbare and made with the lowest quality of wool. It looked scratchy. Regulus frowned and sniffed in disdain, a habit he'd learned from his mother.

"Hello," he greeted the person he'd walked up to. "Can you tell me where I am?"

The hooded figure tipped their head back and pulled back their hood. Regulus recoiled from the sight that greeted him. The man, for it had to be a man with the thick beard on his face, looked up at him. Except he wasn't looking at all. His eyelids were wired shut. The skin was scarred and raised, darker brown than the man's skin, and the wounds looked old.

"Bloody hell! What the fuck happened to you?" Regulus asked in shock.

The man lowered his face and his hood fell back over his head. He turned and walked in another direction, bumping into another grey-cloaked figure.

Regulus looked with wide eyes around at the wandering people. The sightless people. He turned to run and instead collided with someone behind him. It was Sirius but he looked different. He was young, so very young. A child, no more than ten at the most. Regulus recognised the different way he used to part his hair before he went to Hogwarts.

"Sirius," he said with some relief. Yes, his brother was a child, but it was still his brother and any familiar face in this strange, horrific place was welcome.

Except then ten-year-old Sirius grabbed him with the strength of a man and started wrenching on his clothes, tearing them from his body. At first, Regulus fought with him and tried to stop him. When he couldn't match the strength of the pseudo-child, he stood still instead. Not giving up, but hoping that if he made the process easier he'd be left with some dignity.

He was not.

Sirius yanked one final time and Regulus yelped as his pants were ripped off. He dropped his hands to cover himself. The cool air made his skin prickle everywhere. It was made worse when the child grabbed his shoulders and shoved. Regulus felt his back hit stone and he jerked as he landed against its cold surface. Sirius made a gesture with his hand and Regulus interpreted it to mean lay back, so he did.

Sirius started laying leather straps across his torso, belly, and legs. His ankles were secured down, and then his hands. It wasn't until Sirius pulled a leather strap across Regulus's forehead to hold his head still that he started to panic.

"Sirius, please! Stop! Don't do this! You don't have to do this! Please, stop... stop! Sirius!" The last thing Regulus saw was a large, curved needle threaded with wire coming towards his face.

He screamed.

 *** . * . ***

The only outward sign that Severus had woken with a start was that his body twitched once. His eyes stayed closed and his breath evened out immediately after that. The dew on the grass seeped into his clothes reminded him of the last things he remembered. Dying. Limbo. Potter. Earthquake. He couldn't remember what happened after falling into the water with Hermione. That part of his memory was blank. He spent several long moments thinking hard on it, hoping that a sliver of thought would return to him. When it didn't, he opened his eyes.

Above his face was thick grey fog. He tilted his head to look around more and still couldn't see beyond the fog.

He took a deep breath and got up, mentally cataloguing each ache and pain he felt like he usually did. His neck throbbed and he reached up to touch the sensitive skin. It felt normal under his fingers. He had felt that same pain in Limbo fade but now it was back. He wondered what that meant.

He looked around, debating on which direction he should start walking to seek out information on his whereabouts. He took a single step forward and his vision swam like he was performing Legilimency. He saw a child, a toddler, sitting in a tiny, dark closet with a sloped ceiling. The toddler was holding a small blanket that was ripped down the middle like it had been fought over and he was crying quietly. He could hear the voice of another child through the thin walls, screaming and throwing a tantrum.

"It's not fair. I want the blankie. I want it! Mine!"

The toddler inside the closet was shaking his head as he listened.

An adult answered the screaming toddler in sickly sweet baby talk and Severus recognised the voice. Petunia. "No, no, don't be upset, Duddykins. You have five of your own baby blankets."

"But I want that one!"

"But it's ripped now and a ripped one isn't any good. Don't you want a new one? Mummy'll buy you a new one tomorrow." To herself, she muttered, "And it'll give me a chance to throw out the boy's. There could be something _special_ about it. It needs to be out of the house. Can't believe I didn't think about that before."

Severus's vision cleared again and all he was left with in front of his eyes was thicker fog. On his next breath, his nose and throat started stinging. He tried to hold his breath and sunk to his knees to try and evade the stinging, sulfuric fog. It didn't work. Every breath was painful as the fog burned. His eyes watered and he thought that maybe if he walked far enough he could escape it.

He stood and strode forward, blinking often to try and stop the irritation in his eyes. He walked several dozen yards before his vision swam again. He stopped, even though the pain of the smoke was as strong here as it was there. With a vision, there was no chance he'd be able to see where he was going.

This time it wasn't Potter and Petunia. This time he was witnessing something from another lifetime, another era. He couldn't hear their voices but he wouldn't have understood their language anyway. A woman who looked weary from travel was stopping and speaking with any person she passed. One man pointed towards a temple and the woman hurried towards it. The vision followed her into the temple to see a young teenage boy, surrounded by old men with beards. They were all talking and engaging in discourse when the woman came up to them and wrapped her arms around the boy. She chided him, he responded, and instead of getting angry she smiled genuinely at him. Her smile radiated joy and love and Severus wanted to turn away from it. No one had ever smiled at him that way, he doubted even his own mother.

The vision cleared and the pain in his eyes and nose and throat returned. He ground his teeth in anger against the pain and continued walking. He was bound to find a way out of this hell eventually. Hell? He stopped and closed his eyes, trying to remember why that word seemed to ring a bell in his mind. Hell.

No.

Purgatory.

It had been so long ago that he'd read the poems by Dante. Yes, he'd bragged to Hermione about it, but he only remembered the very basics. Since Inferno was always the most interesting that's the one he remembered the most. But if he were in Purgatory... He took another deep breath despite the pain it caused and sat down.

He had a lot of self-examination to work through. What was his greatest sin? And there was something in there about leaving...

 *** . * . ***

One minute, Lily was asleep, the next awake. Yet it seems her body had already been awake because she stumbled upon awakening. She tripped and dropped to her knees, bruising them beyond what she thought was normal. As she stood she realised that her entire body ached and her limbs felt stiff and unused.

She sucked in a deep breath and pushed on, running forward. She didn't notice much of her surroundings as she ran. She couldn't figure out why she was running.

There didn't seem to be anyone around no matter how far she ran. She continued even as her thighs itched, her knees twinged, and her feet throbbed. She continued until every breath she dragged into her lungs was as sharp as kitchen knives and the hitch in her side spread to her entire torso. Her throat felt raw from gasping to breathe but she did not stop.

She fell and the urge, the impetus, to run eased but didn't diminish. She panted and as soon as she felt the tiniest modicum amount of relief the demand to run again overpowered her. She tightened her muscles against the demanding feeling. When she tried to speak or ask anything to learn where she was or what she was doing, her lungs erupted in so much pain she doubled over. Once her focus was on the pain in her chest her legs ignored her brain and started her running again.

Every moment, every thought was of the pain.

Beyond Lily's consciousness, if only she would look up, was a scene of two women animated in the sky like a moving photograph. One woman, in the early stages of her pregnancy, rushed a great distance by foot to the door of another pregnant woman, this one further along in her pregnancy.

 *** . * . ***

The return of muscle spasms and sharp pain in her chest woke Hermione. She felt much like she assumed a survivor of the Cruciatus curse must feel like. She found herself laying on her stomach with her nose and face pressed uncomfortably into the ground. Beneath her was red clay.

She tried to rise but found that her body would not follow her commands. She assessed the position of her limbs, noting that her wrists were down at her sides and her legs were straight and together. Full body-bind. She was trapped in a body-bind spell face down on unfamiliar ground.

Hermione tried not to panic as she thought through as many possibilities for how she came to be in this position, but her list was woefully short. The last thing she remembered was the earthquake in Limbo. 'Earthquake' used the assumption that wherever Limbo had been was somewhere on Earth, didn't it? Terraquake, maybe?

She let her mind wander as there was nothing else to do until someone cancelled the body-bind. She wanted to twitch her leg in her impatience. When that urge passed she started counting. Slow and steady to resemble the tick-tocking she could remember her Grandmother's antique clock making. When she got to three thousand six-hundred she stopped. An hour. She'd spent an entire hour counting. She wanted to scream.

She decided Arithmancy equations would be the next thing she would think about and she spent a good ten minutes focusing her mind on that. She would have liked to run the Arithmancy on her likelihood of getting out of this body-bind sometime in the next hour but she didn't have enough data to structure the equation.

After that, she started reciting _Hogwarts: A History_ in her head. After she'd recited almost half of the eleventh chapter about the previous headmasters she gave up. She couldn't remember the next one after Phyllida Spore in 1408 and until she could get her hands on it, she wouldn't feel right skipping ahead to Antonia Creaseworthy in 1624.

She sighed as heavily as she could despite the body-bind. This was getting tedious. What else could she possibly do while she waited for someone to rescue her? She wondered if she could sleep in this uncomfortable position.

She closed her eyes, thankful for small mercies, and set about reciting the years and events of the Goblin Wars, a topic that even bored her. After what felt like ages, her mind finally quieted.

That's when a voice, so whisper-soft Hermione wasn't even sure she was hearing it, came into her mind. " _Adhaesit pavimento anima mea_ ," it said. Her mind whirled back into activity. ' _Anima mea_ ' was easy to translate, 'my soul.' It took her a bit longer to decide the best translation for the other two words because 'my soul is stuck to the floor' wasn't the most poetic sounding phrase. She decided that 'my soul clings to the ground' was a decent enough translation.

She spent hours going over the words, both in Latin and in English. She declined them, she rearranged them, she repeated them until they became a mantra. It was close enough to the truth of her situation that she didn't wonder at their source. When her mind quieted to nothing but the slow repetition of the words, a scene of a woman giving birth filled her mind.

She recognised the scene immediately from Christmases with her family when she was little. Her grandmother had been a devout Methodist and every Christmas had decorated her mantle with a nativity scene. Hermione recognised the animals, the stable, but it wasn't like the sterile and clean images she'd seen every Christmas.

The vision before her was so much more real. A man helped the woman pace until she gestured that she needed to stop. They spoke but Hermione didn't know the language. The woman continued to stand as she laboured and only when the child was crowning did she reach down and catch her own child as she pushed him from her body. The woman wrapped the child in a blanket and cradled him but when she looked to the man to offer the child to him he refused to touch it. Hermione got the feeling it was because he considered her unclean because of the blood and bodily fluids that were completely natural to the act of birth.

The vision faded and left her with more to think about. What could 'my soul clings to the ground' and the birth of Christ have in common?

 *** . * . ***

When Pandora woke up her first thought was, 'this again.' It had been years since she'd felt the physical weight of her overly plump body and as she lay there she remembered the awe she'd felt when she'd first woken in Limbo. There had been no chafing when she walked, no having trouble rolling over in bed, no squeezing past people or knocking things to the floor, and no embarrassment at ill-fitting robes. With intent, her robes in Limbo fit her rounded figure like a queen.

Now, however, she could feel the robes she was wearing squishing against her heavy bosom, from baby weight she never shed and too much food. Her arms would be limited in their movement because the robes tugged uncomfortably at the armpits. Her stomach felt compressed and her hips would have split the seams when she'd dressed.

She sighed and opened her eyes. Above her were fruit trees with fruit dangling from their branches. Pears, figs, plums, cherries, apricots. Every fruit imaginable danced above her head in the slight breeze. The luscious fragrant that it carried danced under her nose. She licked her lips and felt the pang of hunger urge her to get up and reach for one of the juicy looking fruits.

Pandora stood and reached up. The golden peach above her was just a bit too high. She glanced around to see another branch, this one with a plump mango, and she walked to it and reached up. She couldn't get that one either. Farther out were hundreds of trees all with beautiful, succulent pieces of fruit. The ground, which she would have expected to be littered with the overripe produce was barren. She swallowed as her stomach seemed to twinge again, reminding her of her hunger.

Every tree she tried, every branch, every single dangling fruit, was out of reach. She tried to focus her intent like she would have in Limbo but nothing happened. As the pain of hunger increased she even tried to force her bulky body to climb the trunks of the trees. She could not find purchase and if she did, she slipped and fell.

The pain in her abdomen was unending and she could only look up at the fruit for so long before she sobbed in despair. She sat on the ground with her back against a tree trunk and glared at her ugly body. If she had only shown a bit more restraint in life, maybe she wouldn't be so useless in the afterlife. She missed her friends. She missed watching her family in the pools. She missed being productive and cooking dinner for her neighbours in Limbo. She missed the ease of intent that had allowed her to eat whenever she wished.

She was going to starve.

She was going to starve and it was her own damn fault.

 *** . * . ***

Cepheus woke up coughing. When he felt like he could finally breathe again he reached up to touch his neck. He could feel the bruises from his great-uncle's hands. It had happened so long ago and he'd been in Limbo so long he'd truly forgotten the pain of dying. He wondered how long his neck and throat would stay tender as he looked around, mindful of the pain as he turned his head.

He was sitting naked on a wide stone staircase. He stood and walked down the stairs. They truncated in a cliff. He could see wide, flat black rocks below him like terraces. There was no way to go down. Beyond the rocks was a vast calm ocean. The water was a beautiful turquoise and there were no clouds above. Cepheus figured that he must be facing west because the world around him was well lit and he was sure he felt the sun's rays heating the skin of his back and shoulders.

After spending a long, quiet moment staring out at the beautiful scene he decided he should explore more. His family and friends would be around here someplace.

He turned around and his jaw dropped. It hadn't been the sun warming his skin. There was an immense wall of fire spread as far as the eye could see in either direction and at least a dozen feet high. He froze where he stood. Waiting for the fire to rush out and consume him too.

It didn't.

As unlikely as it was, It almost seemed stationary. He walked closer then and he could hear the roaring and crackling of the flames. When there was only one more step leading to the wall he stopped. Cepheus could feel the blistering heat against his body. He had the strongest urge to walk through it.

He reached out against all common sense and put his fingers into the inferno before him. He jerked his hand back immediately and looked at it. Once out of the flame there was no pain and his skin wasn't blistered or burnt. He stepped back, fighting the urge to walk through it. He wondered how deep the wall of fire was.

He walked back down the steps until he was close to the ledge and looked back. The platform he was on was huge and round. He decided to walk to the right to see if there was a way around the fire. His viewing angle didn't change. The ledge and ocean were to his right, the wall of fire to his left. They were always the same distance apart: ten low steps. He walked on. He never saw the sun, but he did notice the sky grow darker after a time.

The urge was extreme by now, a desperate begging that if he didn't cross through the fire before dark that he would be trapped here forever. Without much conscious thought, Cepheus walked to the fire. He only hesitated once and then walked into it.

The pain was instant and excruciating. Every inch of his skin felt like it was burning off, the flesh growing dry and brittle like crisps. He couldn't contemplate the depth of the wall, all he knew was pain and the worst of it was in his genitalia. He hadn't given any thought to standing around naked or even coming out of the other side of the fire naked, but now he wished he had tried to cover himself if only to protect his sensitive bits from the worst of the fire.

It felt like his cock and balls were being consumed by fiendfyre and burning off his body. There was no way to know if he had stopped walking or if there was anything on the other side of the fire.

All he knew was pain.


End file.
